Five years and one financial crisis since the United States and China commenced regular high-level economic talks, fast-growing Beijing might have the upper hand this week in the latest round of discussions between the world’s two biggest economies. China faces threats of penalties against goods shipped to its largest foreign market unless it does more to end what U.S. manufacturers say are... 

A wave of tainted-food scares has renewed fears in China over continued product-safety problems despite a government promise to clean up the food industry following a deadly 2008 milk scandal. Tainted pork, toxic milk, dyed buns and other dodgy foods have surfaced in recent weeks, sickening consumers and highlighting the government’s apparent inability to oversee China’s huge and under-regulated... 

China has laughed off Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s concerns about Beijing’s human rights issues, and questioned Australia’s own human rights performance, secret US diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks has suggested. Gillard highlighted the annual Australia-China human rights dialogue as the centrepiece of her government’s efforts to enhance respect for human... 

FLiBe, a molten salt reactor coolant. Far-sighted economic super-power China has announced that it is going to address the looming global energy shortfall by building a safer, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper network of nuclear reactors based on thorium molten salt technology. The extensive development and use of this ultra-safe alternative to uranium-based nuclear power was adopted as British National... 

China on Tuesday voiced its appreciation of the efforts made by the African Union (AU) to end the crisis in war-torn Libya. “We have noted the diplomatic efforts by the AU mediators in Libya in the recent days and the roadmap they proposed to end the crisis,” Hong Lei, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a routine press conference. Hong praised the efforts and expressed his hope... 

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei gestures for questions at a press briefing in China's capital Beijing. China has called on the United States to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights issues. China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei urged Washington to focus on improving its own human rights conditions, saying,... 

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has joined with China in calling for a ceasefire in Libya and insisting that the situation cannot be solved by “military means.” Westerwelle, who is visiting China, joined his counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing in calling for a ceasefire and a political solution on Friday – even as NATO allies are involved in a military campaign authorized by UN Security... 

China’s President Hu Jintao Wednesday warned French leader Nicolas Sarkozy that air strikes on Libya could violate the “original intention” of the UN resolution authorising them if civilians suffer. The tough talk from Hu came during a meeting at the start of Sarkozy’s mini-tour of Asia, which will include a G20 meeting on global monetary reform and a stop in disaster-struck... 

China's surge in progress could soon overwhelm the US, say experts. China is on course to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013 – far earlier than expected. That is the conclusion of a major new study by the Royal Society, the UK’s national science academy. The country that invented the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing is set for a globally important comeback. An... 

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responds to questions during a press briefing in Beijing where China reiterated its opposition to the use of force in Libya amid Western air strikes there and called for an immediate ceasefire in the country’s conflict. China Tuesday called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya, where a United Nations “no-fly zone” is being enforced. After... 

Western cuts and swiftly rising defence spending in emerging economies are redrawing the global strategic map, a leading think-tank said on Tuesday, with the danger of conflicts between states also rising. In its annual Global Military Balance report, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said the shift in economic power was already beginning to have a real military... 

China opposes the intervention by foreign forces in the unrest in the Middle East and relevant missions should be led by the United Nations, a Chinese spokesman said Saturday. A similar unrest in China is “preposterous and unrealistic”, said Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for China’s top advisory body which is convening its annual session in Beijing. There would not be such a situation... 

Police officers react during a demonstration outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011, as they follow calls for a ‘Jasmine Revolution.’ Jittery Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a “Jasmine Revolution,” with only a handful of people joining protests apparently modeled... 

An Israeli border police officer walks out from a Palestinian house during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Halamish in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The United States has vetoed a draft UN resolution condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, turning a deaf ear to international... 

Confidential diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Hong Kong lay bare China’s growing influence as America’s largest creditor. As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms — from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money...